On Tuesday, November 26, 2024, Rudy Giuliani talks to media as he exits the federal courts in New York. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)AP
Washington For the second time in a week, Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court on Friday after a federal judge threatened to put him in jail if he continued to circulate false information about two former Georgia election workers who had won a $148 million defamation award against him.
The former mayor of New York City and former lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump was found to have broken court orders prohibiting him from disparaging Wandrea Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C. The judge cautioned him that further infractions could result in his imprisonment and ordered him to review trial testimony and other case records.
Rudy Giuliani was sued by Moss and Freeman for defamation after he falsely accused them of electoral fraud related to the 2020 election. His lies caused them to be harassed and threatened by racists, upending their lives.
As the judge explained her decision to punish Giuliani in contempt of court, he grinned and laughed. Howell, who was President Barack Obama’s nominee for the bench, said Giuliani’s claim that he has been treated unfairly in this case is ludicrous and dishonorable.
“This requires a lot of courage, Mr. Giuliani,” she replied.
Giuliani attacked the judge in a social media post just before the hearing started, accusing her of being biased against him and bloodthirsty, and calling the session a hypocritical waste of time. Giuliani referred to the hearing as a farce and the judge as being wholly biased and prejudiced when he left the courtroom.
What she did doesn’t matter to me. Outside the courtroom, Giuliani declared, “She is an utterly ridiculous judge.” She didn’t give anything I said any thought. She had already written it.
This is Giuliani’s most recent legal failure. He is already facing criminal charges and lost his D.C. and New York law licenses for pursuing false allegations made by Trump regarding his 2020 election defeat.
During Friday’s session, Giuliani simply gave a brief statement to verify documents pertaining to his personal finances.
The court warned that Giuliani would be fined $200 per day if he did not declare within 10 days that he had cooperated with her order to study trial testimony and other case-related material, but she did not penalize him for his most recent defamatory remarks regarding the issue.
In December 2023, a jury found in favor of the mother and daughter, awarding them approximately $73 million in other damages in addition to $75 million in punitive damages.
According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Mr. Giuliani began fabricating false information about Plaintiffs in December 2020 and persisted in doing so despite being repeatedly informed that his conspiracy theory about Plaintiffs’ election-rigging was dangerous, vile, and without merit.
Giuliani’s lawyers contended that the plaintiffs haven’t provided concrete proof that his remarks on November podcasts regarding purported problems in Georgia’s ballot counting breached a court order in the defamation case.
Giuliani’s attorneys claimed that he should not face contempt punishment since he acted in good faith and believed his remarks did not violate the ruling.
Giuliani was held in contempt of court by Judge Lewis Liman in New York on Monday for allegedly failing to provide the judge with information that would have allowed him to retain a condominium in Palm Beach, Florida.
Giuliani stated during his January 3 testimony in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom that he did not turn over everything because he thought the requests were too general, improper, or possibly a ruse by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Giuliani, 80, attempted to avoid making an in-person appearance on Friday by telling the judge that he receives death threats and has been advised to exercise caution when flying. However, he retracted his plea to appear virtually after the judge asked him to clarify whether he had left his residence in Florida in the previous month.
During the slander trial, Moss and Freeman testified that they were afraid for their safety after becoming the focus of a fabricated conspiracy theory that Giuliani and other Republicans propagated in an attempt to retain Trump in power following his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Moss admitted before jurors that she experiences panic attacks, rarely leaves her house, and has attempted to alter her looks.
In the Arizona case, Giuliani has entered a not guilty plea to nine felony charges, including spreading false allegations of election fraud there following the 2020 election.
Along with Trump and other supporters of the former president, he was charged separately in Georgia with attempting to rescind his defeat in the state’s 2020 election. After an appeals court ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office could not proceed with the Georgia case due to an appearance of impropriety created by a romantic relationship she had with a special prosecutor she hired to lead the case, the case’s future is uncertain.